Sunday, November 4, 2012

Fall Candle Holder

It has been a strange week in the Stewart house. All the fun and craziness of Halloween at the beginning of the week, and then stuck at home the rest of the week with a sick kiddo. I've only left the house to take the other guy to school and to a birthday party. Needless to say, I have started to get a little stir crazy! I even cleaned out several closets for a little excitement. Today I really had the urge to craft or bake. Not enough ingredients to bake, so crafting it was. I had this old fishbowl that I have been wanting to do something with. My crafting supplies were pretty low too, so I looked to good old mother nature. Leaves are the perfect decoration for fall, and I had plenty all over my yard!

I decided to try sticking the leaves on the bowl and covering them with tissue paper. Well, of course I didn't have any tissue paper, how about napkins?I decided to give it a try. I also gathered glue, double sided tape, cinnamon and cold coffee (I'll explain the last two items later). I used a glass fish bowl, but you could use a mason jar, glass, or votive holder. The leaves I gathered were all different sizes, types and colors. I also chose fresh, pliable leaves.

First I put a piece of double sided tape on the back of each leaf.

Then I stuck them all over the bowl, varying the size, shape and color.

The napkins I had were white. I thought tan tissue would look better with the leaves, so instead of watering down my glue with water, I used coffee. I mixed about one part glue to one part coffee. For a little more texture, I added a little cinnamon as well.

Next, my little helper and I painted the bowl and leaves with the glue.

After covering the whole thing, I started sticking on pieces of torn paper napkins. I forgot a pic of the torn napkin, use your imagination :)

After sticking a piece on, I went over it with more glue.

After making sure the whole bowl was covered, I let it dry. To keep it from sticking to the table, I had it dry on a lid.

When it was dry, I put a votive candle in. Beautiful! I couldn't believe this MacGyvered project turned out so well!

5 comments:

It looks nice! But I do have one concern, you don't think the non-dried leaves are going to be a problem down the road? Or are you just going to scrape it all off and make something else out of the fish bowl later.

If you wanted a color version, you could try using colored tissue paper. I decorated a couple wooden picture frames like that one year. I bet the candlelight would look really nice shining through the different colors.

About Us

We are Rebecca, Maggie, & Jill - busy women just like you who run after our active kids, try to clean the house once in a while, and manage to throw dinner together (even if it's just a bag of frozen chicken nuggets). But when we get the chance, we enjoy a good project. Something that entertains the kids, saves us a little money, is good for the earth, and even makes us feel pretty. And we want to share these ideas with you!
Enjoy!